Akal Takht order: Jhinda does ‘sewa’ at Golden Temple

A day after being removed as the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president, Jagdish Singh Jhinda performed ‘sewa’ at the Golden Temple on Monday as part of the punishment awarded by the Akal Takht.

Jagdish Singh Jhinda (second from right), the ousted president of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee performing ‘sewa’ at the Golden Temple, as per the Akal Takht orders, in Amritsar on Monday.(Sameer Sehgal/HT Photo)

A day after being removed as the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president, Jagdish Singh Jhinda performed ‘sewa’ at the Golden Temple on Monday as part of the punishment awarded by the Akal Takht.

Excommunicated by the Akal Takht in 2014, Jhinda had on April 4 appeared before the highest temporal seat of Sikhs for tendering apology for not complying with the summons issued against him and his supporters by the Takht for demanding formation of the HSGMC.

Declaring Jhinda as ‘tankhaiya’, Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh had asked him to clean utensils at the Golden Temple for an hour and offer ‘prasad’ at the Akal Takht and offer apology.

When asked about his removal as the HSGMC chief, Jhinda alleged that efforts are being made to divide the HSGMC and pointed finger at radical Sikh leader Baljit Singh Daduwal, who was appointed the parallel jathedar of Takht Sri Damdama Sahib by ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ . Daduwal is also member of the Haryana gurdwara panel.